Mountain View , California -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- As Google prepares to add a new category to its arsenal of portable devices with tablets , the company 's mobile team is deploying ways to better tie its different systems together .

It might not come as a surprise that the internet giant is using the Web to do that .

Like smartphones , this new breed of tablets will run Android , an operating system developed by Google . This next version of Android , called 3.0 or Honeycomb , is its first designed for tablets but will also run on smartphones . Like Apple does with its closed system , Honeycomb will let users buy applications on computers and synchronize them between their Google gadgets .

Using the Android Market website in a browser , you can browse , buy and download apps , Google announced at a news conference on the company 's main campus here on Wednesday .

From the website , users can beam the app to any number of phones or tablets connected to their accounts . The phone begins downloading the app almost instantly . This feature has already been enabled automatically on Android phones .

Previously , you 'd have to open the Android app on a smartphone in order to search for and download programs . Synchronizing between other family members ' phones , for example , was a hassle .

In Apple 's controlled habitat , the iPhone , iPod Touch and iPad share information and apps via a central hub in the iTunes software .

`` There are no wires , no syncing to computers , none of that kind of nonsense , '' Chris Yerga , Android 's engineering director for cloud services , said onstage at the Android event . `` Everything just works seamlessly , syncing between the two . ''

The announcement reinforces Google 's philosophy of doing everything over the internet , or `` cloud '' in industry parlance . Android already synchronizes personal information such as e-mail and contact lists through the Web .

`` It 's the cloud that makes the experience seamless , '' said Andy Rubin , who leads Android development .

But the synchronization features will mean little if Google ca n't persuade smartphone customers to purchase upcoming Android tablets . So much of Wednesday 's event was focused on a walkthrough of new features that will be available to these devices .

A new app called Music brings the Android system closer in line with Apple 's iPod-iPhone-iPad model . Albums and songs are organized in a screen with a heavy emphasis on cover artwork .

Honeycomb also has a live video chat function that will let tablet users talk with other people who are using Gmail on a computer . Apple 's portable devices with FaceTime can talk only to Mac computers running a beta program or using Skype 's app . Skype does not offer a video-calling app for Android .

The new Android software includes improved multitasking functionality , so you can see a window of what apps you were previously using looked like when you closed out of them . All of this runs thanks to a combination of hardware-acceleration techniques for smooth animations .

These techniques also help drive more powerful games .

Google 's partners showed a game called `` Monster Madness , '' which is based on a game originally developed for the PlayStation 3 . Developers said they did n't need to make major alterations to get it to work on the tablet . They also showed an action-packed , medieval-themed game that taps into the hardware 's multicore processors .

Google also attempted to woo attendees and people watching the event 's online video stream with a slew of new apps designed specifically for tablets . CNN announced onstage it will offer an Android app with iReport functions and live video capabilities .

The tablets also will be able to run all of Android 's 130,000 apps designed for smartphone-sized screens . The apps will fill the tablets ' larger screens .

`` We 've spent a significant amount of effort making sure that existing Android apps run well on tablets , '' Hugo Barra , Android 's director of product management , said onstage .

The first tablet to launch with the new version of Android is Motorola 's Xoom , which debuts this month . An exact release date and pricing have not been set .

A Honeycomb tablet from LG , called the G-Slate , will come out in March , T-Mobile USA announced Tuesday evening .

In addition to a camera on the front used for video chatting , that device has a pair of cameras on the back for capturing high-definition 3-D photos and video . You 'll need 3-D glasses in order to see the video on the tablet 's screen .

T-Mobile and AT&T also announced more information on new Android phones this week , none of which will run the Honeycomb software at first .

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Google launches a website for browsing and downloading apps

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Apps can be beamed to your tablets or smartphones from that site

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Google demonstrates many new features packaged with Motorola 's Xoom tablet